Greenock make winning start to 150th Anniversary Season

Greenock made a winning start to their 150th Anniversary season with a comprehensive 160 run victory over Kelburne in a friendly on Saturday at Glenpark.

Batting first, Greenock got off to a bright start with openers Phil McIntosh and Shailesh Prabhu showing good early season form and scoring at a good pace. McIntosh, however, was adjudged LBW to Milliken in the 13th over having scored 38. This brought Richie Berrington to the crease and in a short seven over cameo of 30 he showed his international class scoring four boundaries and a massive six into Fox Street before Ashraf got one to move a little and removed his off stump bail.

At 98 for 2 from 20 overs Greenock were in a good position to build a high score from their forty overs and when Prabhu was beaten by the flight of the ball and bowled by Bennett for 18 in the 24th over it brought together in the middle Alex Baum and Jonathan Hempsey. These two proceded to dominate the Kelburne bowlers, regularly dispatching the ball to boundary rope all round the ground. Being the season opener and a friendly, both batsmen retired once they had passed fifty to give some batting opportunities to others in the side .

Baum was first to reach the fifty mark having scored seven boundaries in his innings of 52 with Hempsey following a short time later with nine boundaries to his credit in an innings of 53.

Greenock’s 40 over innings closed on 243 for the loss of 8 wickets with Greg McDougall scoring 15 not out in a short stay at the crease towards the end of the remaining overs. For Kelburne, Graham Milliken with 3 for 38 from 8 overs was their best bowling performer of the afternoon.

In reply, after the tea interval, Greenock’s bowlers were always on top with only three Paisley batsmen managing to get into double figures, Bennett 15, Geddes 10 and O’Connell 10.

Richie Berrington, captaining the side in Ryan Begley’s absence, used seven bowlers and all found the opportunity to bowl some overs a useful early season experience. Phil McIntosh 2 for 13, Greg McDougall 2 for 19 and Mark Roberston 2 for 15 picked up the bulk of the wickets with Waleed Jamal, Dave Sharma and young Harry Briggs each getting a wicket and there was one run out.